Before even taking office, and well before the Republican bid to repeal
and replace the Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump started saying
the best political strategy for his party would be to let the laws health
insurance exchanges collapse and then blame Democrats.

.

As if on cue, Trump returned to this argument Tuesday, the day after
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) conceded embarrassing
defeat in his effort to advance the Better Care Reconciliation Act, his
proposed vehicle for repeal-and-replace.

.

At the White House later in the day, Trump was at it again.

.

Ive been saying for a long time: Let Obamacare fail, Trump said.

.

I think were probably in that position where well just let Obamacare fail.
Were not going to own it. Im not going to own it. I can tell you, the
Republicans are not going to own it. Well let Obamacare fail and then the
Democrats are going to come to us, he said. Trump expressed the same
sentiment in March after the Houses initial failure to vote on the
American Health Care Act.

.

Lets be plain about what Trump and his willing partners on Capitol Hill
are threatening.

.

The president of the United States and members of the party that controls
Congress are saying that they see problems in the health care system, and
their plan is to stand by and do nothing while people suffer.

.

This is breathtakingly cynical, and reveals the Republican Partys
priorities. Getting rid of the dreaded Obamacare at any cost is more
important to Trump and his party than acting to improve the health care
system for the people they represent.

.

Barack Obama is no longer president, but thumbing him in the eye and
destroying his biggest accomplishment still outweighs taking even the most
basic steps to provide relief to health insurance consumers whose plight
Republicans have so often and so vividly bemoaned.

.

Whatever its deficiencies, and however Democrats soft-pedaled them, the
Affordable Care Act was an effort to make the lives of Americans better by
expanding health coverage to millions, and creating new consumer
protections against health insurance industry practices like refusing to
cover people with preexisting conditions.

.

What Trump is proposing is the opposite. Hes threatening to bite off your
nose to spite Obamas face.

.

Rather than try to help people, Trump will actively avoid helping. Even if
you accept his highly debatable premise that the Affordable Care Act is
irreparable, what hes saying is that because he and the Congress his party
controls failed, they will now do nothing to solve the problems with the
American health care system they themselves have been decrying for seven
years.